Round And About.

attitude Bro . Binckes hns assumed in this matter is highly gratifying to the Provisional Management Committee , and lends very materially to assist such an amicable and satisfactory settlement . * * * The Quarterly Court will be held on the last day of the present month , when Bro . E . V . Greatbach will move : — " That the Provisional Committee are hereby empowered to give Bro . Binckes

such honorarium as they may deem expedient , not exceeding the sum of ; £ i , ooo , out of the funds of the Institution , on his retirement from the office of Secretary , " Bro . Hawkins previously moving the reconsideration and rescinding of the resolution as to pensions declared to be carried at the last Court . * * *

Whether ^ 350 per annum too much burden a charity with is a question upon which minds will differ , and the subscribers to the charity have a very sound case in opposing the proposed pension . I think this idea of commutation an excellent one , and one that can easily be fulfilled . I was in Yorkshire the other day , and broke my journey home , at Ponrefract , where I called at the banking

establishment of Bro . Tew , the Prov . Grand Master for West Yorkshire . Bro . Tew , like most people at this season of the year , had just left , with his children , for Leeds , to witness the pantomime there , so that I did not see him , but his representative at the bank told me that Bro . Tew had opened an account for the purpose of

raising this ^ 2 , 500 , and that subscriptions were coming in very fast . I am afraid this is the explanation of Bro . Langton ' s announcement that a distinguished Brother has munificently placed this large sum at the disposal of the Committee . There is something rather extraordinary about this , as the Yorkshire folk are dead

against the pension , and their champion is the Prov . Grand Master of West Yorkshire , the gentleman who is supposed to have made this offer to the Provisional Committee . Whatever happens , and whatever conclusion the subscribers may arrive at , one thing is most evident , that a speedy solution of the difficulty is absolutely necessary . Everybody connected with the affair seems stuck on the horns of a dilemma .

* * * One gentleman , who signs himself " Veto " in a letter to me bearing no address , but the postal stamp of Ipswich upon the envelope , thinks I am interested in Mr . Binckes ' s favor , and advises me that " a . public journal should take the popular side in

matters of this sort . " I am only with Mr . Binckes in so much as hose subscribers who have expressed their pleasure in sweetening the remaining years of his life . Was he a man who had made provision for the future , he could not for an instant continue in the invidious position he is now placed , at the mercy and caprice

of a section of the charity biassed by a report which is a blot upon the escutcheon of Freemasonry , and a section who makes him the scapegoat for the shortcomings of a body of Committeemen . What Bro . Binckes may be personally I do not know , for I have not the pleasure of his personal acquaintance .

* * * i . Sir Algernon Borthwick , Bart ., is one of those very few men willing to admit he has not done his duty by the Craft . His career has been so eventful , however , that excuses may be made if he has not found time to pay more attention to it . He is the proprietor of the Morning Fust , which has risen to be a very valuable property

since it was reduced to the price of a humble penny . Sir Algernon has a fine mansion in Piccadilly , and an historical place in Scotland . He is a man of but medium height and age . He was knighted in 1880 , and made a Baronet seven years later , and has been M . P . for South Kensington since 1885 . In personality he is of a kind and courteous disposition , has made tons of money , and knows how to keep it . He is a Scotchman by birth .

* * -it-There still seems to be a very widespread belief that the President of the Royal Academy is one of us . I am afraid Sir Frederick Leighton has no very high opinion of the Craft , for he tells me of an insulting letter he received a little time back

from a disappointed student of the Academy Schools , upbraiding him for his want of Masonic obligation in not awarding the writer a prize he felt himself entitled to . These cases of Craft etiquetteor want of it—should be brought before some tribunal at Great Queen-street , and dealt with in a prompt and emphatic manner . * * *

Mr . Edward Terry , as soon as his Grand Treasurcrship expires , intends to spend the remainder of the year in India , through which he will make a tour , accompanied by his wife . Mr . Terry is very fond of travel , and gets quite enthusiastic over the lions of the place he happens to be visiting . On one occasion , whilst yachting in the Mediterranean , his party saved a young Russian who had

happened upon some calamity of shipwreck or something of that sort , and , although Mr . Terry has never seen him Since , a yearly gift of cigarettes and tobacco testifies his thankfulness to his benefactor .

* * * The 1 st of next month is the last performance of " Sweet Lavender , " out of which Bro . Terry has secured a very handsome fortune , exceeded in recent years but by the phenomenal receipts of " Dorothy . " In Mr . Terry we may centre the rise and fall of

English burlesque ; so eventful has been his career , and so highlyinteresting and instructive it is , that his friends have outweighed his scruples , and he has at last consented to allow his reminiscences to be written .

* * * Tucked out of sight in the High-street of Ponteftract , close to the Market-place and opposite the " Lion " —the cleanest hostelry south of the Tweed , and superbly managed by Mr . Sweeting and his two charming daughters , well known of hunting squires — and

behind a quaint shop front , is to be found , surrounded by his books and old-world stationery , Bro . Holmes and his family of eleven sons . Bro . Holmes is the proprietor and editor of the Pontc fract Advertise ); but the curious fact about this publication is that the entire production from week to week is the work of himself and his

boys . His youngest compositor is a lad of nine , who , wonderful to relate , can set up anything in the most expert manner . The little chap loves the work , and struts about the place with the dignity of a grey-haired comp . engaged by Hansard . In his quiet , uneventful li . ' e , Bro . Holmes has opportunities of exercising his love for

antiquarian research , and besides being a prominent member of several Yorkshire Antiquarian Societies of renown , he has written a history of his native town and published an exhaustive work upon " Pontefract Castle , " the guide-book to which is from his pen . Bro . Holmes is not very communicative , but when you have managed to " draw "

him you will be sure to hear his admiration for his neighbor and patron , Bro . W . Tew , the Provincial Grand Master for West Yorkshire .

The Chairman at the anniversary festival of the Benevolent Institution , to be held on the 2 Gth prox . at tlie Freemasons' Tavern will make himself famous if he can suggest a means whereby the enormous number' of applicants for admission into the Institution can be comforted in their old age . That for each vacancy that

occurs there exist from fifteen to twenty applicants reveals a most unpleasant condition of affairs . It is easy , indeed , to reduce the numbers of eligible inmates by increasing the minimum age at which a man or woman becomes eligible , but such a means is very uncharitable and extremely unfair . The question of degree , solely

from the point of age , has no weight when threescore years are reached and passed . It should be a matter of worthiness first , of destitution second , and age last . * * * A lady of my recent acquaintance , who , though not a rich woman by any meansis possessed of property and an income that to many

, would be considered an ample one , had a son for some years a student at the Boys' Schools . This young gentleman was elected by a large majority of votes , and since his retirement from the school has been articled to a profession in which he is expected to , and